One Month

It's hard to believe that we have been living Buea, Cameroon, Africa for one month! In some ways it feels like we've been away from home and familiarity for MONTHS but in other ways the days and weeks have pass quickly! I've taken roughly 30 cold showers, but then I've also eaten roughly 30 acvocados! Month 1 of this adventure has been filled with adjustments I can't even describe but God's blessings and watch care continue to cover my every step!

Mary and I got some beautiful fabric from Buea Town, the oldest subdivision of Buea. You cant really tell how beautiful and vibrant the colors are in this picture but they are! and there is a shiny print over the top! So we found another sweet seamstress (just a few steps down the road from our other one) and she made us twin dresses! :)

We were shocked to find this toilet... There really is no such thing as a public bathroom around here, if you're just out and about and have to go... The nearest bunch of trees or other hiding place it where you go... or if you're a man around her, you just don't find a hiding place, standing on the sidewalk is just fine. So Mary decided to make use of this public toilet which she was surprized to find actually had toilet paper! Even the "teachers' bathroom" at my school doesn't have TP, you're expected to bring your own "tissue." But Mary did discover that there was no flush on this toilet but a bucket of water beside for you to flush and refil.

You know you're in Africa when the teacher writes "means of land transportation" on the chalk board and elephant and camel are on the list!

The stories I could tell you are endless! I try to write every night and do my best to record my experiences of the day, I just get overwhelmed by trying to remember and relay all the details I want to save and share.

Today at the deaf school when lunch time rolled around the kids were dismissed and then returned with a plate of rice with beans spooned over the top. The first day I visited the school I got to see these beans being cooked in a huge pot setting on three big rocks with a fire burning under it and I even got to stir it. The kids in our classroom were busy eating and then I noticed kids from another classroom standing around our windows with thier plates. I didn't really notice that they were just standing there with their food until the teacher told me that these older students were waiting for our students to finish eating so that they could use the spoons. There's only so many spoons, so they have to take their turn. When the teacher was given her plate she waited for awhile and then split her food between the three students she thought should eat more; one who was sick, the smallest boy, and another student.